



Book ' K.3 £f 



ELECTRON; 

OR, 

THE PRANKS OF THE MODERN PUCK : 
Ji $thfpty1tit <%ic for tty fets. 



BY 

WILLIAM C. RICHARDS. 



11 First, let me talk with, this philosopher, — 
What is the cause of Thunder ? " 

King Leae. 

" I '11 put a Girdle rouud about the Earth. 1 ' 

Puck. 



NEW YORK : 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

346 & 348 BROADWAY. 

1858. 



411- s* 

. ol 

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

WILLIAM C. RICHARDS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 






CONTENTS. 



Dedication Sonnet, 

Invocation, 

The Ambep Sprite, 

The Infancy of Science, . 

Copernicus, 

Galileo, 

Newton, 

The Temple of Science, . 

Electron's Trance, 

The Awakening, . 

Electron Tortured, . 

Attraction and Kepulsion, 

Electron in Germany, 

The Electrical Machine, 

Electron Entrapped, . 

The Leyden Jar, . 

Franklin and his Kite, 



PAGE 

5 
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9 
10 
12 
14 
16 
11 
20 
2] 
23 
25 
26 
26 
21 
31 
32 



CONTENTS. 



The Lightning Captured, 
Tile Kite in Europe, . 
Franklin's Magic, . 
The Thunder Storm, . 
The Thunderbolt, . 
The Lightning Rod, . 
The Northern Lights, 
The Arctic Aurora, . 
Galvanism, 

VOLTA, . 

Electron's Metamorphoses, 

The Tale of a Tear, . 

The Artificial Diamond, . 

Shakespeare's Cliff, . 

The Submarine Battery, . 

The Telegraph Foreshadowed, 

Electro-Magnetism, 

The Telegraph Realized, 

The Ayenger of Blood, . 

The Electric Fire-Alarm, 

The Electrotype, . 

The Cause of Cholera, 

Table Turnings, . 

The Pause, 

The Ocean Telegraph Predicted 

Post-hoc, 



My Story of the Past and of the Now, 

Is bright with lustrous names upon its pages, 
Some shining still, from Time's far-distant ages, 

And some fresh-blazoned on his hoary brow, 

From Thales down to Morse ; — betwixt which two 
Electron's whole career was comprehended, 
When erst this venturous verse of mine was ended ; 

But now another name, with their's, must glow ! 
His who, with dauntless heart and daring hands, 

Has led Electron's feet 'neath Neptune's flood, 
And taught him how, with more than iron bands, 

To clasp two worlds, in closest brotherhood. 

Such honour as I may — to him I yield, 
Whose lay has made the flood, Electron's noblest Field. 



God thundereth, marvellously, with his voice ; great 

things doetii ne, which we cannot comprehend. 

Job xxxvii. 5. 

Who HATn divided a watercourse for the overflowing 

OF WATERS, OR A WAY FOR THE LIGHTNING OF THUNDER? 

Job xxxviii. 25. 

Canst thou send lightnings that they may go, and say 

unto thee, Here we are ? 

Job xxxviii. 85. 

Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their 

words to the end of the world. 

Psalm xix. 4. 

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace ; good 

will toward men. 

Luke ii. 14. 



ELECTRON 



INVOCATION . 

Hail subtile spirit of the amber cell, 
By the Ionian sage, 1 Electron hight ! 2 
Who didst of old, as by enchanter's spell, 
To thine embrace allure all objects light, 
Bestow on me the magic of thy might ; 

1 Thales, of Miletus ; whom the Greeks counted the chief 
of their seven sages. 

2 'HAeKTpoz/ is the Greek term for amber, in which substance 
the curious property of attracting light substances, when it 
was excited by friction, was first observed by Thales. 



8 ELECTRON. 

(Or be thyself the Genius of my song !) 
That I may weave its witcheries aright, 
To catch the airy fancy of the throng, 
That loves to find its thrall, nor obdurate nor long ! 



ELECTRON. 



I. 



THE AMBER SPRITE. 

When Thales first 1 the curious instinct saw 
That dwelt within the polished amber-stone, 
He questioned Nature of its hidden law, 
But she refused the mystery to own ; 
Not then to man's behest compliant grown. 
The baffled sage, what could he less than seek 
A spirit to possess the glittering throne ! 
And thus Electron sprang — of whom I speak, 
Of Superstition born, to philosophic Greek ! 

A gentle spirit he, with winning ways, 
That wooed the wanton ever to his arms ; 

1 About 600 years before the Christian era. 



10 ELECTRON. 

In dalliance passed the blossom of his days, 
And Time ne'er robbed him of his tender 

charms. 
When Nature was convulsed with wild alarms, 
His amber cave with timid haste he sought 
Unconscious there of elemental storms. 
The thunders hurtled — but he heard them not ; 
Nor lightning's vivid flash illumed his fairy grot ! 



THE INFANCY OF SCIENCE. 

Those were thine infant days, Philosophy ; 
Ere thou had'st dared with eagle flight to soar, 
To pluck bright mystery from the silent sky, 
Or boldly sweep the wide Empyrean o'er — 
In kingly quest of Nature's precious lore. 
Thine altar was no Inquisition then — 
To drag the priests of Mystery before — 
And put them to the torture there, as men 
Search, with the merciless rack, for truths beyond 
their ken. 



ELECTRON. 11 

Slow was thy growth in that ungenial age ; 
They fettered thee with Error's festering chains : 
Bade thee with phantoms thy young strength 

engage ;' 
Counted thy conquests only in their gains, 
And gathered emptiness, for all their pains. 
Thus ages lapsed, and though great bards were 

born, 
Who filled the earth with their immortal strains, 
Star-eyed Philosophy w^as laughed to scorn — 
And wandered o'er the w r orld, unfriended and for- 
lorn. 

Far in the depths of Christian ages glow, 
The first, pure beams of philosophic light ; 

1 The Alchemists occupied themselves, chiefly, in such vain 
aims as the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone, whose touch 
they supposed would instantly transmute the baser metals into 
gold ; an alkaless, or liquid in which all solids should be im- 
mediately dissolved; and the Elixir of Life, which should have 
the power of curing all diseases, and of prolonging physical 
life at their pleasure. 



12 * ELECTRON. 

Their dawn was trembling, and their rising slow. 
Freed from the womb of Superstition's night. 
Like ominous stars they loomed upon men's 

sight, 
Nor welcomed less, had they been portents 

dread, 
Of some strange terror and of fell affright : 
The harbingers of holy Truth instead, 
Before whose blazing links, Error's foul phantoms 

fled. 

COPERNICUS. 

With what immortal light on History's page, 
These Prophet-names are written, strong and 

clear ; 
Nor pale they, in the radiance of an age — 
Which deems the glory of the noontide near : 
There doth thy name, Copernicus, 1 appear ; 

1 Nicolas Copernicus was a native of Thorn in Prussia, 
and flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century. He 



ELECTRON. 13 

Thou, who didst break the Spheres of Ptolemy — ! 
That crystal phantasm, to long ages dear — 
And set the whilom prisoned planets free, 
To circle round the Sun, in choral harmony. 



revived and demonstrated the idea of Pythagoras, that the 
sun is the centre of the system of which the earth is a part ; 
in opposition to the prevailing philosophy, which made the 
earth motionless in the centre of the universe. His name is 
still connected with the true theory of our planetary system, 
which is called the Copernican System. 

1 Ptolemy Claudius, the most distinguished astronomer of 
the second century, was the author of the Amalgest, the only 
text-book in Astronomy which the world possessed for fourteen 
centuries. Ptolemy is said to have originated the system of 
Epicycles, to explain the motions of the heavenly bodies ; and 
to have assumed, for the sake of illustration, the existence of 
crystalline spheres, revolving around, and sometimes through, 
each other. This fanciful theory degenerated into a creed, in 
the minds of his less noble successors ; and, eventually, the 
crystal spheres of Ptolemy were multiplied in number, and be- 
came so complex in their motions, that in reading the work of 
Purbach, intended to explain them, one cannot help being re- 
minded of the complaint of Goethe's student, in Faust : 

" Within my ears I hear a sound, 
Of fifty mill-wheels, whirling round.' 1 



14 ELECTKO iSI . 



GALILEO. 



Yet mind, long slaved, loves well to wear its 

chain ; 
And spurns at freedom which it never knew ; 
Turns from the light to error's gloom again — 
And thinks the world all open to its view : 
The godlike truth aye lingers with the few, 
Who buy it dearly and who sell it not ! 
When Galileo taught the world anew, 
The Earth's true motions — but too soon for- 
got— 
Instead of homage due, a prison was his lot. 

They gave him bonds who should have given a 

crown ! 
For in their hands the key of knowledge lay : 
But Superstition pressed their eyelids down — 
And they saw darkness in the dawning day ; 
In meek Religion's name, (alas ! that they 
Such dark dishonour put upon that name !) 



ELECTRON. 15 

God's truth and Nature's, daring to gainsay — 
They forced the inspired lips through which it 

came, 
To utter halting words of falsehood, and of 

shame. 1 

Oh, man ! how weak ; oh, Truth ! how mighty 

thou! 
When threatened torture and the frown of 

Death — 
Blanched with white terror, Galileo's brow, 
And wrung false utterance from his honest 

breath, 
There was a mightier spirit still beneath, 



1 In 1626, Galileo published his work entitled " The Sys- 
tem of the World," in which he discussed the comparative 
merits of the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems, and defended 
the former. By this act he incurred the hostility of the 
Church of Rome, and was brought before the Inquisition in 
1633, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. He was imprisoned 
and tortured, and to escape from his pains, he solemnly ab- 
jured the doctrine of the earth's motion around the sun. 



16 ELECTRON. 

Which struggled, rose, and would not be sup- 
pressed : 
As leaps the blade of Justice from its sheath, 
When wrongs of innocence must be redressed — 
The burning truth sprang forth, from the old Pi- 
san's breast. 1 

NEWTON. 

A century-march along the track of Time — 
We grope in gloom, aweary of the night ; 
When, suddenly, around us breaks sublime, 
A glory, as of new-created light ! 
The heavens above, and Earth beneath, glow 

bright, 
Orbed with the radiance of great Newton's 

fame ; 

1 It is related of Galileo, that after he had solemnly re 
canted the belief, that the earth was not at rest in the centre 
of the universe, as he turned away from the judgment-seat of 
the Inquisition, he stamped with his foot, and exclaimed,— 
"It moves, for all that." 



ELECTRON. 17 

Who gave to blind Philosophy her sight, 
Clothed her in virgin robes, instead of shame ; 
And on the sapphire sky, wrote with the stars her 
name ! 

Soon clad in Beauty, and with Truth adorned, 
She reigns in all the realm of Nature queen ; 
Her humblest minister no more is scorned, 
And light springs up, where'er her step has been. 
Joined, hand in hand, with Reason she is seen, 
And both, obedient to their King Divine, 
On the pure bosom of Religion lean ; 
A glorious Trinity of Heaven's design, 
The Wisdom, Power, and Grace, that in the God- 
head shine. 



THE TEMPLE OF SCIENCE. 

And lo ! a temple builded to her praise, 
Whose grand proportions mortals may not, 
know! 



18 ELECTRON. 

Geology its deep foundation lays, 
In massive rocks, that with the ages grow, 
Slow as their solemn lapse, and strong as slow i 
No marble walls on these foundations rise, 
Nor mortal-fashioned columns stand arow ; 
For walls and dome, Astronomy supplies 
The infinite profound, of wonder-veiling skies. 

This gorgeous temple is bedecked within, 
With rare magnificence and cost untold ; 
All the fair Sciences conspired to win 
Reward unmeasured by unmeasured gold — 
A fame that groweth ever — but not old ! 
And they have wrought all to one grand design.. 
With skill surpassing Art a thousand fold ; 
Until the splendours of their work outshine 
All fables of the East, and stand confessed Divine ! 

Sublime, beyond my reach, the task to sing 
The building of this temple, stone by stone : 
Enough, that I pursue with venturous wing, 
The tale of wonders through Electron knowa 



ELECTRON. 19 

For lo ! at length, our timid sprite hath grown 
Of such colossal height, and shape amaze, 
His sage progenitor would never own 
In him, the spirit with the winning ways, 
Who dwelt in amber-cell, in dim old Grecian days. 



20 ELECTRON, 



II. 



ELECTRON'S TRANCE 

Electron slumbered, peacefully and long, 
Nor, from his trance, in sixteen centuries woke ; 
Since o'er the world, with beams divinely strong, 
The sacred light of Revelation broke : 
E'en Newton's voice, which oft potential spoke, 
To wrest from Nature her reluctant lore, 
Could not a murmur from the Sprite evoke. 
He slept, profoundly, yet a century more ; 
And Boyle scarce wiser died, 1 than Thales lived 
before. 

1 1691. 



ELECTRON. 21 

But now the Priests who at the altars stand, 
In that grand temple of my recent song, 
Had multiplied, until a legion band 
Of Neophytes, with restless spirit throng 
To pay her homage, unto whom belong 
Those newly builded altars ; and to swell 
Her lawful praise, with loyal heart and tongue. 
These all explore the realm of Nature well, 
If haply to her queen, some secret they may tell. 



THE AWAKENING. 

Not long Electron 'scaped the vigilant quest ; 
His amber-cell Gray scanned with sedulous eye, 
The sprite awoke, and to his modern guest 
Displayed his art, with pretty courtesy ; 

1 Stephen Gray laid the foundations of Electrical science 
between the years 1720 and 1736. He developed the diversity 
of electrics, discovered the non-electric or conducting sub- 
stances, and made other important and successful investigations, 
which approximated the subsequent discovery of Du Faye. 



22 ELECTRON. 

Nor dreamed his visitor would more espy 
Than that which baffled the Ionian sage, 
When he within the mystery sought to pry. 
Here he mistook the spirit of the age — 
Resolved relentless war, with Ignorance to wage. 

Electron had a thousand lurking-places, 
Besides the amber-cave where he was born ; 
And soon, to philosophic eye, the case is 
Clear as the sun, on dew-bespangled morn — 
The sprite would never nook or corner scorn, 
Where he could lie perdu in earth or air ; 
And when, perforce, from his ambushment 

torn, 
His captor prisoned him, with jealous care, 
On second look he found — the subtile rogue not 

there ! 

He laughed at chains, as mockingly he ran 
Along the shining links, more swift than light ; 
But patient skill contrived, at last, a plan — 
To hold in thrall the fairy-winged sprite : 



ELECTRON. 23 

A leash of silken cords restrained his flight, 

Or, shut in crystal walls, he lay undone ; 1 

And like great Samson, shorn was powerless 

quite : 
'Twas thus by wiles the amber-sprite was won ; 
As fair Delilah's lap, betrayed Manoah's son. 



ELECTRON TORTURED. 

And now they tortured him a thousand ways, 
To make him all his errantries confess ; 
While daily grew their wonder to amaze, 
As daily they beheld his craftiness ; 
And learning still, still seemed to know him less. 
For bolder grown — although a prisoner tied — 
To other traits, he joined capriciousness ; 



1 Silk and glass belong to the class of non-conductors of 
the electric fluid, and hence it may be accumulated in them 
without dispersion, except through a conductor applied to 
them. 



24 ELECTRON. 

His winning manners sometimes laid aside, 
And whom he drew with love, anon repelled w T ith 
pride. 

And still inconstant, more and more, he grew, 
As still occasion rose to his caprice ; 
While from their doubts, at each dilemma new, 
His questioners despaired to find release; 
Till bold Du Faye, with his hypothesis * 
Of twin Electrons, some new hope revealed. 
The one first found in amber stone of Greece ; 
The other in a crystal cave concealed ; 
And these of different names, and natures too, he 
held. 



1 Du Faye, a French philosopher of the eighteenth century, 
observed closely the opposite effects produced by the friction 
of glass and resin in attracting and repelling, respectively, light 
substances. He taught, therefore, that there were two differ- 
ent electric fluids — the one vitreous and the other resinous ; 
and that these attracted each other, but repelled their own 
kind. This theory is held by many scientific men at the 
present day. 



ELECTRON. 25 



ATTRACTION AND REPULSION. 

Defiant both, these two Electrons see, 
What one desires, the other prompt denies ; 
A moment longer, and as suddenly, 
The close embrace of one its object flies ; 
While the repulsed, to heighten still surprise, 
An instant trembling, hesitates, and then — 
Clasped in the bosom of the other lies. 
So hostile impulses oft govern men, 
Who love and loathe anon, then loathe and love 
again. 

Now mark the wonder as the wonder grows ; 
These twain are hostile only to their kind : 
(As unlike natures in sweet friendships close, 
In point of clear analogy we find :) 
The amber-spirit never is inclined 
To dalliance with its like in earth or air : 
Nor he, of crystal birth, has any mind 
2 



26 ELECTRON. 

To woo embrace of kindred anywhere ; 
While each impatient flies, to seek the other's 
sphere ! 



ELECTRON IN GERMANY. 

Meanwhile the bruit thereof was spread afar, 
And stirred the spirit of the Teuton old, 
To inquest deep, which soon exceeded far, 
In strange result, all that my verse hath told ; 
And which, in order due, I will unfold. 
Oh, had the Sorcerer, Faust, been living still, 
How might his fame have grown a hundred-fold, 
With such a Mephistopheles at will, 
As this our sprite had been, for mystery or for ill. 



THE ELECTRICAL MACHINE. 

In Germany, he grew in grace so fast, 

They made machines to summon him withal ; 



ELECTRON. 27 

O'er crystal globes the cushioned rubbers passed, 1 
And quick the sprite obeyed the eager call. 
With silent haste he climbed the arch6d wall, 
And thence into a prison was conveyed: 
Nor could he 'scape from isolated ball, 2 
Until, perchance, some luckless hand was made 
To feel his pent-up spite, and sudden shrink dis- 
mayed. 



ELECTRON ENTRAPPED. 

One day they made for him a watery cell, 3 
Contained within a crystal goblet wide ; 

1 Winkler, of Leipsic, invented the friction cushions, and 
so improved the electrical machine, that the spark obtained 
from the prime conductor readily ignited combustible sub- 
stances. 

2 A metallic ball (or tube) first suspended by silken cords, 
and afterwards mounted on a glass pillar. 

3 In 1746, Professor Muschenbrook, and his associates in 
the University of Leyden, electrified some water in a glass jar, 
and thinking that their experiment had produced no effect, 



28 ELECTRON. 

A chain within the liquid ambush fell, 

Down which Electron was compelled to glide, 

And in the limpid flood his face to hide. 

There, quiet as a mouse, he lay perdu, 

Till his tormentors all were satisfied ; 

Then he resolved to show them something 

new, 
And, just to please himself, play off a trick or 

two. 

When, therefore, he who held the crystal cup, 
Put forth his hand to lift the treacherous chain, 
The elfish sprite, the linked path rushed up, 
And smote his jailer in the breast amain : 
That he cried out, in strange alarm and pain. 
The crystal bath lay shivered on the ground — 
And the malicious sprite was gone again. 

that one of them, who held the jar, proceeded to remove the 
chain which connected the water and the machine, when in- 
stantly all the accumulated force of the electric fluid spent 
itself upon his arm and body, to his utter amazement and dis- 
comfort. 



ELECTRON, 29 

Amazement seized the group who stood around, 
And held them speechless long, wrapped in a spell 
profound. 

Deeply they pondered how the thing befell, 
And yet again, the magic goblet tried : 
While we admire to hear these heroes tell, 
Of shocks which all their senses terrified ; 
(And with imagination well allied !) 
Or made their noses bleed, till they were weak : 
With much, that I might here repeat, beside ;* 
But that I meant, herein, the cause to seek — 
Instead of the effect, of which they bravely 
speak. 

1 Xoad, in his admirable work on Electricity, records the 
statements of the Leyden philosophers concerning the won- 
derful shocks of the electrified goblet, and says of* their ex- 
travagant testimony of their experiences : "It serves to show 
how cautious we should be on receiving the first accounts of 
extraordinary discoveries, when the imagination is likely to be 
affected." The author has often taken and administered, with- 
out ill effects, much more powerful shocks than the Leyden 
heroes could possibly have felt. 



30 ELECTRON. 

They pondered long, but all agreed at length, 
That when the sprite perfused the liquid mass, 
His opposite, in nicely-balanced strength, 
Did from the goblet's outer surface pass. 1 
So when the wight who held the fatal glass, 
Sought to remove the chain, Electron leaped 
Along the vital pathway — hence, alas ! 
His shock, the nerves, in wild excitement 

steeped, 
Till all the senses reeled, in strange confusion 

heaped. 

1 This is what the Electricians call Induction. One kind, or 
one state of the electric fluid, in excess, induces an opposite 
kind or condition in any substance within the sphere of its in- 
fluence, so that of two substances, or of two insulated sur- 
faces of the same substance, near to each other, the electrical 
conditions are different, when the natural equilibrium of either 
is disturbed. Thus, in the Lcyden jar, the positive fluid, ac- 
cumulated in its interior from the electrical machine, induces, 
to its exact degree, a negative electrical condition upon the 
outside of the jar, so that when the jar is discharged, the 
within it, is instantly distributed to supply the lack 
without. 



ELECTRON. 31 



THE LEYDEN JAR. 

In this enchanted goblet doth appear, 
The first rude outline of the Leyden Jar ; 
Familiar, now, to schoolboy, though in fear, 
From its tall ominous knob, he stands afar, 
And gazes trembling — as on baleful star. 
Yet soon by courage, or by shame, led on, 
Advances, like the stripling new to war : 
The glittering danger lays his hand upon, 
Starts with a sudden shriek, and on the floor falls 
prone. 



32 ELECTRON. 



III. 

FRANKLIN AND HIS KITE. 

When now upon the ponderous beam of Time, 
In equipoise, the Eighteenth Century hung, 
Across the ocean flood, in western clime, 
Electron's fame with new-born wonder rung. 
Lend me thy proudest utterance, now, my tongue, 
Of Franklin's noble name and deeds to sing, 
As name like his is worthy to be sung. 
He who, with silken kite and hempen string, 
Gave to our Earth-born sprite, a cloud-surmounting 
wing. 

Oh, well the noble sport may boyhood love, 
To sail the Kite upon the Empyrean sea ; 



ELECTRON. 33 

To watch its white wing, glancing high above 
The far-off billows of Immensity — 
The spirit of the lad, itself, as free ! 
But never Kite like Franklin's sailed before, 
On such a quest, to such discovery. 
The simple story list, I pray, once more ; 
5 T is pleasing to rehearse, and needful to explore. 

A heavy cloud above the city lay, 
And fitful gusts, a coming storm foretold ; 
The merry urchins ceased their out-door play, 
And gathered in the dear domestic fold. 
Then Franklin, bent on noble sport and bold, 
To mead adjacent, hastened with a Kite — 
A silken kerchief, on a cross outrolled — 
Gave to the growing gale his errand light, 
And, towards the angry cloud, watched silently its 
flight. 1 

1 The date of this eventful experiment is June, 1152. It 
is claimed abroad, that to M. Dalibard, of France, is due the 
honour of having established the identity of lightning and elec- 
tricity. This claim is based upon the met that Dalibard made 
2* 



34 ELECTRON. 

Deep in the vaporous bosom of the cloud, 
The Kite swayed madly on the rocking air, 
And faintly now, and now, again, more loud 
The thunders murmured, from their distant 

lair ; 
While Franklin kept a painful vigil there. 
For, with a giant hope, his soul grew great, 
Whose birth were triumph, but whose death, 

Despair ; 
Each passing moment was an age to wait — 
The crowning of his hope, or sealing of his fate ! l 

the decisive experiment at Marly-la-ville, a month earlier than 
the American philosopher at Philadelphia. While this is true, 
it is not less true that the French savant arranged his appara- 
tus and conducted his experiment according to the suggestions 
of Franklin — with whom alone the idea originated. 

1 In a graphic report of this famous experiment, the narra- 
tor says : " lie observed the hempen cord, but no bristling of 
its fibres was apparent, such as was wont to take place when 
it was electrified. He presented his knuckle to the key, but 
not the smallest spark was perceptible. The agony of his ex- 
pectation and suspense can be adequately felt, by those only 
who have entered into the spirit of such experimental ro- 
bes.* 1 



ELECTRON. 35 

What daring dream possessed his eager soul, 
That, with a toy, he might the mystery clear ? 
Was there no horror in the thunder's roll ; 
Or flashed no warning in the lightning's glare ? 
Not of the tempest, sprang his vigil's fear ! 
Prometheus-like, he sought, with ardent mind, 
To snatch a spark of fire from Heaven's high 

sphere. 
The lightning's dazzling wing, he fain would 

bind, 
If haply as he dreamed — Electron there to find ! 



THE LIGHTNING CAPTURED. 

Fainting with hope deferred, he trembling stood, 
While Disappointment hovered o'er his head ; 
And the dank air was burdened with her brood 
Of mocking sprites, to crush his faint hope 

dead. 
But hark ! one joyous shout, and they are fled. 
Alon# the cord that held the straining Kite — 



36 ELECTRON. 

The fire came down — the boon he coveted ! l 
Spark after spark, he drew the symbols bright, 
And wrote Electron's name, in Heaven's refulgent 
light. 

What rapture, then, was kindled in his breast, 
To feel the dear fulfillment of his hope ! 
A boundless future, on his vision prest, 
With triumph full, to fancy's amplest scope. 
By one vast bound, he had o'ercome the slope, 
That, oft by steps laboriously slow, 
To Fame's unclouded pinnacle^ leads up. 
Thence, on the lightning's wing, his name should 

go— 
And, Alpine thunder like, in ceaseless echoes 

crow ! 



1 To quote again : " After the lapse of some time lie saw 
that the fibres of the cord near the key bristled and stood on 
end. He presented his knuckle to the key, and received a 
Btrong, bright spark. It was lightning ! The discovery was 
complete, and Franklin felt that he was immortal." 



ELECTRON. 37 



THE KITE IN EUROPE. 

Now, Eastward, o'er the Atlantic's azure flood, 
The tidings flew, impatient to be told ; 
And all the Priests of Science speechless stood, 
While through their temple-aisles the Evangel 

rolled, 
And bade the gates of Mystery, wide unfold ! 
Woke from their sudden trance, at length they 

rise, 
Prepare their altars, and, with daring bold, 
Call bright Electron from the lowering skies, 
To bring his living fire, and burn their sacrifice ! 

With zeal untempered, some the rites perform, 
Heedless of peril, so they snatch the flame ! 
Till once, the sprite, descending in a storm, 
Bestowed on Science, her first martyr's name — 
Memorial twinned, of folly, and of fame. 1 

1 Professor Richmann, of St. Petersburg, in the year 1753. 
lie had erected, near his study, in the open air, an apparatus 



38 ELECTRON. 

To caution warned, the trembling priests in- 
voke, 

Henceforth, with humbler mood, and less ac- 
claim, 

The vengeful spirit of the lightning-stroke — 
That smites the airy tower, or rends the stalwart 
oak ! 

for repeating Franklin's fttperiment on a grand scale. In his 
study was a ball and an electrometer, connected with the appa- 
ratus. While he was conversing with an artist in his employ, 
a very heavy peal of thunder was heard, and he turned in- 
stantly to examine the electrometer. Stooping over the ball, 
"as he stood in that posture," says the narrator of the. event, 
"a great white and bluish fire appeared between the rod of 
the instrument and his head. At the same time, a sort of 
steam or vapor arose, which entirely benumbed the engraver 
and made him sink on the ground." 

So violent was the shock throughout the house, that the 
wife of the Professor rushed into the study, and approaching 
her husband, found him sitting, quite dead, in a chair that had 
been behind him as he stooped. The fluid had entered his 
forehead, and, apparently, passed out at his foot, bursting his 
shoe and singeing his dress in its passage. This awful casu- 
alty was the result of incautiousness in preparing his appa- 
ratus. 



ELECTRON. 39 



FRANKLIN'S MAGIC. 

Yet more of Franklin's fame, must I rehearse, 
No gem more bright, may grace Electron's 

crown ; 
It lends a rarer magic to my verse, 
Than all the myths of Araby have shown ; 
In him, behold Aladdin far outgrown — 
TThose fabled palace droops within the shade 
Of that, where Science rears her starry throne ! 
The Genius of the Lamp shrinks back, afraid, 
Whene'er Electron speaks, or lifts his awful head. 

To probing search, he made his lamp-slave 

yield, 
And questioned of his nature close and long ; 
Then, like an oracle of old, revealed 
New wonders, which shall duly swell my song. 
lie taught the doctrine of Du Faye was wrong, 
And made of twain Electrons, one again. 



40 ELECTRON. 

Showed how two natures to the sprite be- 
long ; 
Which all his mad caprices may explain, 
As in excess, or need, each in its turn may 
reign. 1 

The sprite, by nature, loves to be at rest, 
And never starts, unbidden from his sleep ; 
But wakened, still there burns within his breast, 
A passionate yearning yet again to steep, 
His subtile senses in oblivion's deep. 
When hindered long, or rudely, fierce he grows, 
And, like a pent-up torrent, rages to o'erleap 

1 The theory of a single fluid, is, perhaps, more commonly 
prevalent than that of the twin fluids of Du Faye, although both 
doctrines seem to be susceptible alike of rigid scientific proof. 
According to Franklin's theory, the accumulation of more 
than a natural amount of the fluid in any place, is called posi- 
tive Electricity, and the corresponding deficiency is called neg- 
ative Electricity. The former answers to the vitreous, and the 
latter to the resinous fluid of the French philosopher. They 
attract each other, while the similar states of the fluid are mil- 
ui«.ll\ repulsive. 



ELECTRON. 41 

All barriers which his freedom dare oppose ; 
And these at last o'ercome, he sinks into repose. 1 



THE THUNDER STORM. 

Much loves the sprite, when summer heat pre- 
vails, 
Upon the Vapour's airy wing to rise ; 
High in the air, his little convoy sails, 
And meets a myriad consorts in the skies ; 

1 The natural condition of the fluid is an equilibrium. 
When this is disturbed by mechanical or chemical causes, the 
tendency of the fluid is to return to a state of rest ; as when 
two clouds, differently electrified, approach each other, the 
positive electricity leaps to the negative cloud ; or, when the 
two opposite sides of a Leyden jar are united by a conductor, 
the excess inside the jar is instantly dispersed to the negative 
outside. In both cases, the interchange is attended with a 
flash and a report, proportioned to the volume of the fluid es- 
caping from its confinement. In this phenomenon lies the an- 
swer to Shakspere's question, in King Lear : 

" What is the cause of thunder ? " 



1J ELECTRON. 

Which blend, and swell to cloud of ample size, 
To darken half the concave vault above. 
Through the thick gloom, Electron swiftly hies, 
And grows in terror, w r hile his huge wings 
move, 
Like Vulcan's arms, to forge the thunderbolts of 
Jove. 

With maddened speed, the darkling mass drives 

on, 
Like barque, all rudderless, on surging sea ; 
And, burdened with its gloom, now earthward 

prone, 
Through the reluctant air, drifts sullenly. 
The traveller, from its wrath, makes haste to 

flee, 
And timid beasts grow wild with headlong 

flight, 
As now Electron hurls, impetuously, 
Shaft after shaft, his purple arrows bright, 
And shrouds the reeling Earth, in sheets of livid 

light. 



ELECTRON- 43 

Hark ! how the thunders boom along the sky, 
And cleave the air with one perpetual roar ; 
As when huge waves before a tempest fly, 
And die, with giant throes, upon the shore — 
While vaster seas succeed those spent before. 
So rolls Electron's voice, with awful sound, 
From the dark sea of clouds his javelins tore, 
Waking ten thousand tremulous echoes round, 
Till all the frightened scene quakes like a battle- 
ground. 

At length the sprite, grown tired of such rude 

fray, 
Dissolves the vaporous mass he formed at first; 
In crystal floods, it weeps itself away, 
Which o'er the plains in tireless torrents burst, 
And all the fainting landscape slakes its thirst. 
Spent are his shafts, and hushed his awful tone, 
Till back to slumber his fierce mood is nursed ; 
Then o'er the grateful Earth shines the glad 

Sun, 
And Nature, in her joy, puts a fresh beauty on. 



44 ELECTRON. 



THE THUNDERBOLT. 

Not always harmless goes the pageant by ! 
The reckless sprite, at times, vindictive grows ; 
With dreadful aim, his fiery bolts forth fly, 
And fell destruction follows fast his blows. 
Toppling to earth the lofty turret goes — 
And flames, a-sudden, wrap the sacred walls, 
Or humbler roof, red with the ravage glows. 
Perchance worse ruin still — some mortal falls, 
Struck with an instant death, which living sight 
appals. 

THE LIGHTNING ROD. 

To curb this direful wrath of our mad sprite, 
And make innocuous, his ungoverned play, 
Taught by the magic mission of the kite, 
Lo ! Franklin's genius points the ready way, 
And bids his bond-slave still his voice obey. 
Above the walls of tower and temple, rise 



ELECTRON. 45 

Tall slender shafts, which silently betray 
The ambushed cloud, and rob the treacherous 
skies, 
Of all the glittering harm, that in their bosom lies. 

Now, on the mountain peak, or in the vale, 
Or where the plains their fertile laps outspread ; 
Man dwells secure, as in some hallowed pale, 
From perils, in the cloud's black bosom bred, 
While Franklin's rod is lifted o'er his head. 1 



1 It not unfrcquently happens that buildings, supposed to 
be duly protected by lightning-rods, are nevertheless struck by 
the electric fluid, and either partially or totally demolished. 
This fact has created, in some minds, doubt, and discussion in 
the newspapers, as to the utility of lightning conductors ap- 
plied to buildings. In every such case of harm to an edifice, 
provided with rods, there is, unquestionably, a defective ar- 
rangement of the conductors — either an insufficiency of dis- 
persing points, a lack of just elevation, or injudicious insula- 
tion. Especially should the rods be connected with, and not 
separated from, the metallic portions of an edifice, such as its 
gutters ; and they ought not to be detached from the building 
by non-conductors of the electric fluid. A well-applied system 
of rods is an absolute defence to any building whatsoever. 



40 ELECTRON. 

And white-winged ships, fly o'er the watery 

waste, 
By the red scath of Heaven, unvisited ; 
And, from the Tempest's wing, still borrowing 

haste, 
If but the talisman rise above the tapering mast. 1 



THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. 

Sometimes Electron seeks the deej^er skies, 
Where never clouds obstruct the blue serene ; 
Borne still on vapory wings, afar he flies, 
And glances swiftly through the Ether thin — 
What time the air with frosty breath is keen, 
And snow, like silence, falls on Earth below. 
Then, through Night's gauzy veil, the sprite is 
seen 

1 In 1842, Sir William Snow Harris introduced into the 
British navy, the system of fixed conductors for ships, which 
ensures perfect security to them amid the perils from light- 
ning, which, in tropical seas, are very imminent. 

2 



ELECTRON. 47 

In strange, fantastic shapes, to come and go — • 
Which by the simple name of Northern Lights we 
know. 1 

Poised just above the north horizon's bound, 
An arch of dazzling flame extends afar ; 
Flushing the night-veiled sky with light around, 
More rosy than Aurora's fingers are. 
The simple gaze with terror-smitten stare, 
To see the night a-glow with tints of morn ; 
And some dark portent dread, in sight so 

rare. 
To others yet, though of such terrors shorn, 
It seems the crimson pledge, of Conflagration 
born. 2 

1 It is very seldom that the aurora borealis is seen in its 
perfection out of high northern latitudes. The Author has 
a vivid recollection, however, of one which he witnessed, in 
western New York, about twenty years since ; in which there 
was a magnificent corona, and great variety as well as intensity 
of colour in the radiations. 

2 The Author was once lecturing upon Electricity, in a 
country town, when there happened to be a fine aurora visi- 



46 ELECTRON. 

Now from the radiant arch a-sudden fly, 
A myriad shafts of purple-crested light ; 
Up through the frightened darkness of the 

sky, 

Like blazing rockets, sped on arrowy flight, 
Braiding, with threads of gold, the veil of 

Night ; 
In glowing lines their glittering course they 

trace, 
And flash, unwearied, on the straining sight, 
Which deems them spirits of some fairy race, 
Who, with their symbols wierd, emblazon Night's 

dark face. 

Lo ! how the sky-born glories multiply ! 
Concentric fires the Empyrean arch divide, 



ble. A friend of his told him the next morning, that an igno- 
rant villager rushed into his office during the lecture, and with 
great perturbation declared that " the thunder man had set 
the heavens on fire." The appearance of a great fire is a 
common aspect of the aurora in our latitude, 



ELECTRON. 49 

And rapid rays, which glance athwart the 

sky, 

Glow with the seven-fold tints of Iris dyed. 
Like banners in the wind, from side to side, 
They sway and flutter on the billowy air — 
A fleet of rainbows on a tossing tide ; 
While, overhead, a gorgeous tent they rear, 
As if for royal fete, they draped the heavenly 
sphere. 

A moment, yet, the wondrous vision stays, 
Then lapses, like a pageant of our sleep, 
And leaves upon the sky a violet haze, 
Through which the stars, that sentinel the 

deep, 
Give token of the faithful watch they keep, 
Shining less bright, but not less pure, than 

aye; 
Their lustre only dimmed, like eyes that weep : 
Until the violet tints pale into gray, 
And the sweet dream is done — the glory past 

away! 

3 



50 E 1- EOT R N . 



THE ARCTIC AURORA. 

Iii the dim regions, round the frozen Pole, 
Where icy bulwarks breast the Arctic seas ; 
The adventurer brave, who seeks that frightful 

goal, 
Tells us of grander visions far than these. 1 
How when the Sun to southern circuit flees, 
Nor, half the year, the central pole illumes, 
Electron's majesty, the voyager sees, 
And, in the sight, forgets the sunless glooms, 
Nor mourns the long delay, till Sol his reign re- 
sumes. 

There, an unwritten beauty fills the sky, 
When bright Electron decks the rim6d scene ; 

1 Captain Parry, in his second voyage for the discovery of 
a north-west passage, saw displays of the aurora that baffle 
description. Other Arctic explorers give glowing accounts of 
this magnificent magnetic phenomenon in the polar regions. 



ELECTRON. 51 

His purple pinions o'er the concave fly — 
And flood the firmament with golden sheen. 
Shrinking, abashed, the frightened stars are 

seen, 
And chaste Diana's silvery shafts grow pale, 
Til] Night forgets, awhile, her Virgin Queen. 
Here let me pause — nor seek to lift the veil — 
To sing the scene beyond, Apollo's lips might fail. 



52 i: l- E OTB O N. 



IV. 



GALVANISE. 

When, to its close, the Eighteenth Century 

wore, 
And one decade would merge it in the Past, 
Fresh wonder broke, and all undreamed be- 
fore, 
So great Electron's glory grew, and fast, 
And a new spell of admiration, cast 
O'er all the ministrants at Nature's shrine, 
Who well might deem each marvellous hap the 

last, 
That in the annals of our sprite should shine ; 
But, now, the record shows a new and lustrous 
line. 



ELECTRON. 53 

Where fair Bologna's halls of learning rose 
Beneath ItahVs dome of peerless blue, 
As often trifles in themselves disclose 
Long-buried marvels to the heedless view ; 
A mighty marvel here, from little grew. 
A frog made famous great Galvani's name, 
And filled the listening world with noise anew. 
"The tale is one of such a common fame, 
The repetition spared, shall bring my song no blame. 

When he beheld, beneath Electron's touch, 
With vital force the frog's dead muscles spring, 
Who shall upbraid the old physician much — 
That he, on bold Imagination's wing, 
O'ershot, perchance, the reason of the thing, 
And thus our matchless sprite endued with skill, 
To each obedient minister to bring 
The swift decrees of all controlling Will, 
And every mortal frame with Life's great pulses fill. 1 



1 Galvani argued, from the effect of electricity upon the 
muscles of the frog in his laboratory, that this subtile principle 



54 ELECTRON. 



VOLTA. 

Next, Volta's name, upon this story's page, 
Marks a grand Epoch, as the tale moves on ; 
His pife, the noblest column of our age, 
Rose with the Nineteenth Century's golden 

dawn ; 1 

is the source of animal life. He failed to discover the true in- 
terpretation of the marvel he witnessed ; but his name is, 
nevertheless, inseparably linked with the great branch of elec- 
trical science that comprehends its chemical phenomena — that 
of Galvanism. 

1 Alexander Volta lived all the latter half of the last cen- 
tury, and through the first quarter of the "hundred years of 
wonder," now speeding on their course. In the beginning of 
the year 1800, he invented the Voltaic pile, and developed the 
nature and the law of that phenomenon which Galvani had 
witnessed, only, before him. Voltaic Electricity, or Galvanism, 
is an active force, produced by chemical change in bodies. 
The simple Voltaic pile is a series of alternate discs of two 
dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, which, when exposed to 
acidulated water, suffer chemical change, in the process of 
which electricity is generated — flowing in steady currents be- 
tween the two metals, as long as they arc in contact at any 



ELECTRON. 55 

And ere the half of its great years were gone, 
It towered aloft, to such amazing height, 
That watchmen, placed its pinnacles upon, 
Scanned distant lands with miracle of sight, 
And tidings spread afar, swift as Electron's flight. 

But never Volta dreamed such fame should 

crown 
The work his genius shaped, his toil began ; 
ISTor all the brilliant steps of this renown, 
My song can compass in its humble plan. 
Yet fitly do I sing who led the van 
Of bold discovery, in that large domain, 
Where still Electron's marvellous steps we scan; 
'Twas he who bound the sprite with Chemic 

chain, 
And, like our Franklin bold, put him to proof 

again ! 

point. All Galvanic batteries are modifications only, of this 
simple apparatus — which has wrought more marvels, and ex- 
erted, already, a mightier influence upon the world, than, per- 
haps, any other single instrument of science. 



56 ELECTRON. 

Till now, by question urged, the sprite confessed 
Existence co-extensive with all space ; 
Of unigenous nature, but expressed, 
Diverse in laws of action, time, and place : 
Now, playing in the amber courts with grace ; 
Now, painting rainbows on the polar sky ; 
Now, deepening fear upon the Storm's swart 

face; 
Now, pluming Thought o'er all the Earth to 

fly; 

To quivering needle now, imparting constancy. 

Though Yolta's ashes blend with common earth, 
His pile still stands, the marvel of our time ; 
In whose mysterious womb are brought to birth, 
Those modern miracles we deem sublime ; 
Whose fame shall fly abroad 'neath every clime; 
Till Sorcery, abashed, her art forsakes ; 
And Superstition sinks into a crime ; 
Till Mind o'er Matter just dominion takes, 
And universal light — o'er all Earth's darkness 
breaks. 



ELECTRON. 57 



ELECTRON'S METAMORPHOSES. 

See how Electron, with Voltaic fangs, 

Plucks the bright secret forth from Earth's dark 

womb ; 
Rends the mute atoms with convulsive pangs, 
Till, 'neath the torture, all the truth must 

come, 
And that grow eloquent, which had been dumb. 
Lo ! at the poles the sparkling globules gleam, 
And the dull potash glows Potassium. 
Though vanished long, the old Alchymist's 

dream — 
This metamorphosis — his myth surpassed may 

seem. 1 

1 In 1807, Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that the alkalis, 
which had been hitherto regarded as simple bodies, were, in 
fact, metals united with oxygen. This result was obtained by 
experiments upon the alkalis with a Yoltaic apparatus com- 
posed of 2,000 pairs of plates, and its announcement was 
hnilcd as marking a new epoch in Electrical Science. 

3* 



58 ELECTRON. 

This peerless change — illustrious Davy, makes 
Less noted, Apuleius' name than thine ; 
Nor classic Ovid's such remembrance wakes, 
Nor Faust's, though famous too, in kindred line ; 
Their metamorphoses with false light shine, 
"While that I sing, and others left unsung, 
Are writ in Nature's bright, unerring line. 
Thy hand the silence broke that sealed her 

tongue, 
And from her Titan grasp, the brilliant trophies 

wrung. 



THE TALE OF A TEAR. 

And now to pleasing story lend thine ear, 

Electron's chronicle the tale reveals ; 

I sing the occult marvels of a tear, 

Which down the cheek of sorrowing beauty 

steals ; 
And with a mute, but syren spell, appeals 
To hearts which other force could never move ; 



ELECTRON. 59 

And while it sways, the sceptre, yet conceals. 
Some tell us that the tear is charged with 
love, 
And never dream it hides the artillery of Jove ! ' 

That little crystal globe, so pure and bright, 
Is orbed and fashioned by Electron's skill, 
His cunning kindles its translucent light, 
His subtle graces all its chambers fill : 
There lie, enchaliced, at his own sweet will, 
Light-pinioned vapours which his wand sets 

free, 
Or holds in their pellucid prison still. 
These mysteries in the pearly tear-drop be — 
And of the casket fair, Electron keeps the key. 



1 As a most marvellous fact, we are taught, by accurate ex- 
periment, that there is Electricity enough, in a single grain of 
water, to fill S00,000 large Ley den jars, or, in other words, to 
charge a moderate sized thunder-cloud. The " lightning of 
the eye," when it is moved to tears, is thus far more terrible 
than that of its smiles. 



60 ELECTRON. 



THE ARTIFICIAL DIAMOND. 

Lo ! now, by sharp Voltaic fingers grasped, 
The swarthy carbon feels Electron's flame, 
With silver zone of light and heat enclasped, 
It yields at once its being and its name, 
Transformed, though in its nature still the same. 
Not far Golconda, from her starry mine, 
Could yield as suddenly, so bright a gem, 
On the fair brow of Science born to shine ; 1 
Electron's precious gift, at her immortal shrine ! 



SHAKESPEARE'S CLIFF. 

There rose a beetling rock on Albion's coast, 
The twin of Shakespeare's cliff, of wide renown, 

1 The opposite of this mythical transformation is an easier 
feat of Electron. The diamond is readily converted, by a 
powerful Voltaic battery, into charcoal. Charcoal, itself, is 
fased, and reduced to graphite. 



ELECTEON. 61 

Which like an overgrown, white-sheeted ghost, 
Flung its pale shadow o'er the watery Down, 
Further than that on which great Glo'ster's 

son, 
Stood trembling at the dizzy deep below, 1 
Of Dover's cliffs most fit to wear the crown. 
That monarch of those ghostly hills did bow 
To great Electron's will; list! and I'll tell you 
how. 

That mighty cliff for ages had opposed 
The shock of tempests, and the dash of waves; 
At its proud base the sounding surges closed 
Their march, like monarchs at the place of 

graves, 
Whose dark dominion never mortal braves. 
But man's ambition, chafing to o'erleap 
The barrier, round its huge foundations raves 

1 " How fearful, 
And dizzy 't is to cast one's eyes so low ! " 

Edgar, in King Lear, Act IV., sc. 2. 



62 ELECTRON. 

Perplexed — till fierce Electron, roused from 
Bleep, 
Touched its profoundest springs and plunged it 
in the deep ! ■ 



THE SUBMARINE BATTERY. 

Behold far seaward on the horizon's verge, 
Comes looming on the sight a white- wing' d 

host; 
Insatiate War and thirsty Rapine urge 
Their hostile prows upon our rock-bound coast : 
Her walls of oak, Columbia well may boast, 
And in her fortresses take noble pride ; 

1 " The destruction by gunpowder of the Round Down cliff, 
on the line of the South Eastern Railway, in 1843, is a splendid 
example," says Noad, " of the successful application of a sci- 
entific principle, to a great and important practical purpose. 
In this grand experiment, by a single blast, through the instru- 
mentality of the Galvanic battery, 1,000,000 tons of chalk 
were, in [ess than five minutes, detached and removed, and 
610,( and twelve months' labour saved." 



ELECTRON. 63 

Nor know in which her strength lies treasured 

most: 
But battle-ships and fortresses aside — 
Electron's voice can bid her marts, in safety still 

abide. 

If hidden deep beneath the waves there lies, 
Where the great Channel to its straitest grows, 
An ambuscade of deadliest batteries, 
Into whose very heart a pathway goes, 
Which none but he who lays it may disclose ; 
And where Electron's step alone may steal ; 
Then to the luckless ship a thousand woes — 
That, o'er the latent harm, would drive her keel, 
For at Electron's nod, her death-pang she should 
feel. 



THE TELEGRAPH FORESHADOWED. 

" I'll put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes." Thus, the tricksy sprite, 



64 ELECTRON. 

Who of great Shakespeare's fertile brain had 

birth, 
In the sweet dream of one midsummer night ! l 
Was it, immortal bard, thy master-sight, 
That ages pierced, with fine prophetic glance ; 
And robbed the future of its unrisen light ? 
That mythic girdle of thy Puck, perchance, 
Was our Electron's zone, and stolen in his trance ! 

Yet, not the vaunted speed of fairy sprite, 
At the behest of royal Oberon, 
Can mate, for marvel, our Electron's flight, 
Outstripping e'en the coursers of the Sun, 
Which with his flaming chariot fleetly run : 
Ere mortal eye can shut and ope again, 
Our earth he'll gird about with mystic zone! 
Now, from the tale, each timid ear refrain — 
Lest wonder strike it deaf, while it pursues the 
strain. 

1 Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., scene 2. 



ELECTEOH. 65 



V. 



ELECTEO-MAGNETISM. 

When Oersted's 1 philosophic gaze discerned 

The quivering needle first the pole deny, 

And marked its course, or east, or west, it 

turned — 
As north or south, Electron darted by ; 
Perplexed he scanned its strange divergency, 
And made its faltering lips the secret own, 

1 In the year 1819, Professor Oersted, of Copenhagen, made 
his famous discovery, which forms the basis of the Science of 
Electro-Magnetism. He observed that currents of Galvanic 
Electricity affected the position of a magnetic needle brought 
near them ; and from this simple fact has grown up the philos- 
ophy that has enriched the world with many great scientific 
marvels, of which the Electric Telegraph is the crowning one. 



06 ELECTRON. 

Why thus it should forswear the mystic tie: 
Not less the magnet, than the amber throne — 
Tortured to speech, confessed, Electron King 
alone ! 



THE TELEGRAPH REALIZED. 

No longer, now, they dreamed a vision vain, 1 
Who saw Electron swift, bear news afar ; 
With cunning hand they seized his glittering 

chain, 
And bound him featly to Thought's winged car: 
His mystic paths all mortal feet debar, 
And 'twixt wide-parted territories lie, 



1 Perhaps the earliest dreamer of this sort, who tried to 
realize his dream, was Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, who, in 
1747, made experiments with electric circuits of four miles in 
extent, and found that the passage of the fluid occupied no 
appreciable time. The discovery of Oersted gave a new im- 
pulse to the still latent idea of telegraphic communication, and 
only a few years later, the dream came true. 



ELECTRON. 67 

Like slender highways sprung from star to star. 
Along the track his eager footsteps fly — 
And tame the fable grows of swift-wing'd Mer- 
cury. 

AVith honour due 't was mine to sing his name, 
Who raised Electron to the glowing skies ; 
His kite and rod invoke perpetual fame, 
All uneclipsed, while newer marvels rise : 
'Tis poor renown that with its century dies ! 
Beside that name — high out of envy's reach — 
Another still to shine, our tale supplies. 
Franklin and Morse — a long renown to each ; 
One gave Electron wings ; the other taught him 
speech ! ' 

1 The whole honour of inventing the system of electric 
communication of ideas between distant points, belongs, per- 
haps, rather to the present age than to any one individual of it. 
To Oersted, unquestionably, we must attribute the discovery 
of the great principle in science, upon which it depends. To 
Ampere, of France, belongs, as surely, the credit of suggesting 
the applicability of the new principle to telegraphic purposes, 
and this within a year of Oersted's discovery (1820). Both 



68 ELECTRON. 



THE AVENGER OF BLOOD. 



Behold the murderer, with his hand yet red, 
And dropping life-blood on his coward track ; 
Before Fear's scorpion lash his feet have fled, 
Nor torturing conscience lets their sj)eed grow 

slack, 
Lest Retribution, with her vengeful pack 
Of red-lipped hounds, whose note is " blood for 

blood," 
Overtake the wretch, and howling bear him 

back: 
Not swifter fled Orestes, when pursued 
By the Eumenides, that fierce Uranian brood. 

European and American philosophers dispute with Professor 
Morse, the distinguished honour of making that application 
practically and successfully ; but, as yet, there is nothing es- 
tablished to invalidate his just claim to be considered the in- 
ventor of the Electro-Magnetic Telegraph. lie conceived his 
idea i:i 1882, although it was not until 1837 that he made it a 
reality — a working fact. 



ELECTRON. 69 

Through darkness which his fear mistakes for 

light, 
And through the sunshine, every ray a foe ; 
Scared by the morn, and dreading more the 

night, 
See the red homicide, in terror go — 
Not for his deed, but lest the world should 

know! 
Fly on, a thousand leagues, thou child of Cain ! 
Yet shalt thou not escape Fate's vengeful bow : 
Thy crime flies on before, and there the chain — 
Electron's hands have forged — to drag thee back 

again ! 

THE ELECTEIC FIRE ALARM. 

There stands a city on Columbia's coast, 
Where once young Freedom in his cradle lay : 
For learning now, and love of Arts, the boast, 
Wide as that cradled giant holds the sway — 
Whose starry flag two ocean-shores display. 
High on a tower in that trimontane mart, 



TO E I, ECTBON \ 

Electron sits, a sentinel alway — 
To watch the fire-fiend in his stealthy start, 
And then to stir the town with clamours at its 
heart ! x 



THE ELECTROTYPE. 

With patient toil, the weary sculptor sits, 
And graves the glowing picture on the steel ; 

1 The fire-alarm bells throughout the city of Boston were 
rung at noon on Friday, Aug. 7th, 1858, from the telegraph of- 
fice in the city of Portland, Maine, in commemoration of the 
successful laying of the ocean telegraphic cable on the previous 
day. It is clear, from this novel occurrence, that the bells of 
all the great cities in the land might be rung, simultaneously, 
by a single hand ; and, with the aid of the submarine cable, 
the bells of both worlds might be chimed together, from Lon- 
don, or New York, or Paris, or St. Petersburg, in honour of 
any event in which the whole civilized world was interested. 
It would not be difficult, moreover, to fire cannon in every city 
by a single touch of electric keys at any one point. Why may 
not such a two-world celebration of the opening of the sea as 
a new Jield of electrical triumphs yet be realized? 



ELECTRON. 71 

That dainty work Electron's hand repeats, 
With far surpassing speed and well-matched 

skill: 1 
Nor lovely shape can plastic art reveal, 
His imitative fingers to defy — 
Which mould the pliant metals at his will. 54 
Not fabled gnomes can with his wonders vie, 
Who in the Earth's deep womb, their metallurgy 

Pty- 

1 The designs on the cover of this little volume are speci- 
mens of Electrotyping. The first engraving on the wood was a 
comparatively slow process by the hand of the artist, but a 
very brief space of time sufficed to reproduce the engraving, 
not on wood, but upon copper, by the agency of Electricity. 
In like manner, the finest engravings on steel might be multi- 
plied at a small cost. 

2 " By taking advantage of the very extraordinary power 
of Electricity, we now form vessels for ornament or use, we 
gild or silver all kinds of utensils, and give the imperishability 
of metal to the most delicate productions of Nature — her 
fruits, her flowers, and her insects ; and over the finest labours 
of the loom we may throw coatings of gold and silver to add 
to their elegance and durability." — Hunt's Poetry of Science. 



72 ELECTRON. 



THE CAUSE OF CHOLERA. 

Some tell us, when the Asian death prevails, 
And strides in terror o'er the sickened Earth ; 
Till human faith grows faint, and courage 

fails, 
And tears and wailing follow smiles and mirth, 
That in the air the Pestilence has its birth ; 
When from its vital part Electron flies, 
The breath of Azrael fills up the dearth. 1 
In quick despair the wretched victim lies, 
And, past all tardy skill, in shivering horror dies. 

1 It has been noted as a fact, that when that dreaded 
scourge, the Cholera, has made its appearance, and during its 
ravages, the electrical condition of the atmosphere has been 
unusually low, and that the disappearance of the disease has 
been attended with a restoration of the ordinary intensity of 
the electricity of the air. Hence it is argued by some, that the 
cholera is caused by a loss of Ozone from the atmosphere, which 
is only its oxygen, vitalized by Electricity. 



ELECTRON. 73 



TABLE TURNINGS. 



Believe not those the silly tale who tell, 
That great Electron stoops to idle things ; 
And, sportively, the thrall of his weird spell, 
With lavish w^aste, o'er chairs and tables flings, 
Till round the room they fly, w T ith legs for 

wings. 
Or tip and rock, like ships upon the sea, 
Or jerk as if their joints were full of springs. 
What mystery soe'er in this may be, 
Our sprite, indignant, says, " Seek not the cause in 

me ! " 

" I do what human skill and strength defies, 
Not the poor exploit of some dexterous hand. 
I bid the thunder roll along the skies ; 
I pour the grateful rain on thirsty land ; 
I aid the rose her petals to expand ; 
I mould the gems that in the caverns shine : 
4 



74 ELECTRON. 

T circle Earth with Thought's invisible band ; 
I guide the ships across the wind-tossed brine ; 
Charge me no follies then — these glorious works 
are mine." 



ELECTRON. 75 



VI. 



THE PAUSE. 

Here let me pause — the marvels I have sung, 
And many more, if Time would grant, to sing, 
Successive peals on Fame's great bells have 

rung, 
Which hi the turrets of her temple swing, 
And o'er the world their noisy wonder fling, 
In honour of Electron's mighty name ; 
And louder yet, those silver bells shall ring, 
And loftier yet, shall grow his tower of fame, 
As swift the years roll on, and still his deeds pro- 
claim. 



H ELECTRON. 



THE OCEAN TELEGRAPH PREDICTED. 

Soon shall the Ocean yield his feet a path, 1 
Down in its crystal depths securely laid ; 
And heedless, then, of tempests in their wrath, 
Xor of the roar of Neptune's voice afraid, 
The skirt of the old Sea-King's robe he'll 

braid, 
With threads of thought, betwixt two worlds 

that run, 
No more by thousand leagues of space delayed. 
Britannia, then, with fair Columbia one, 
Bound in the nuptial clasp, of our Electron's zone. 

1 This prediction was uttered just as it is written, in con- 
nection with the whole poem, at the anniversary of the Philo- 
niathean Society of Pierce Academy, in Middleboro, Mass., 
in August, 1854. The author had the extreme pleasure of an- 
nouncing to the same society, the realization of its prophetic 
strains, in the successful landing of the great telegraphic cable, 
both at Vaientia, in Ireland, and at Trinity Bay, in Newfound- 
land, on the very day of its fourth succeeding anniversary. 



ELECTRON. 11 

And, this achieved, the victory shall be sure, 
Of Thought o'er her twin foemen, Time and 

Space. 
Her vassals then, their right they shall ab- 
jure, 
To isolate one spot on Earth's fair face, 
Where man could wish, or find, a dwelling- 
place. 
Her mighty continents, and all the isles, 
Electron's golden cestus shall embrace. 
Distance shall then, no more, be known by 
miles, 
Nor Time by weary days, when that glad Era 
smiles. 

Oh then shall come, Earth's happy age of 

gold ! 
When Knowledge shall dispel the shades of 

Night— 
Whose sable wings yet half the globe infold, 
And shut true wisdom from the people's sight. 
Science, baptized in Revelation's light, 

L.ofC. 



E L E C T R O N . 

Shall shod her pure effulgence o'er the lands, 
And put the foes of God and man to flight. 
Enough that in this prophet-vision stands, 
One trophied instrument, wrought by Electron's 

1 lands. 



K LECTK K 79 



" Sook," said I, in my glad prophetic song, 
When its great theme had fired both heart and 

tongue ; 
c Soon shall Electron glide beneath the Sea, 
Betwixt two worlds, their messenger to be ! ' 
My song was bold, perchance, but still sincere ; 
I hailed the marvellous hour as real and near 
Yet, had some doubting Thomas bid me say 
How soon the thing should be, how near the 

day — 
I had not dared to interpret " soon " and " near," 
By the swift lapse of Time's fourth circling 

year ; 
For years are days, aye moments, in the birth 
Of those great deeds, that glorify our earth ; 



80 I LECTEO N 

And bad I ages asked, to prove my song, 
It had been soon, though men might deem it long, 
If, when they swelled the Past, the sea no more 
Hindered the speech of men, from shore to shore. 

Four years had sped. I saw their last red sun, 

Crimson the village scene I gazed upon, 

When from my humble lips the story came, 

Of how Electron sprang, and all his fame ; 

And how that fame should yet more marvellous 

be, 
When he had cast his spell upon the sea. 
That sun arose upon my vision sealed ; 
But ere it set, the splendour was revealed. 
I trembled, as I heard the tidings told, — 
My heart to know, than to believe, less bold, — 
That down beneath Atlantic's billows lay, 
A slender cord — a safe, though mystic, way ; 
On which Electron's feet may come and go, 
As swift as Thought's invisible currents flow, 
Between two shores, where kindred peoples dwell 
To bind then) both in one, with his strong spell! 



ELECTRON. 81 

'T was thus the tidings broke, o'er all the land, 
Sudden, and strange, the joy on every hand ; 
The Electric wires grew vibrant with its thrill, 
As flashed, from East to West, the wonder still. 
In every peopled mart, the booming gun, 
And chiming bell, proclaimed the victory won, 
Of Science and of Skill, o'er Time and Space, 
And a new Era hailed, for our blest race ! 

But now a shadow fell — a cloud of fear ! 

Why comes no token from the Eastern sphere ? 

Why, as the days glide on, from England's Queen, 

Breaks there no sign ? What does this silence 

mean ? 

Thus murmured many lips that late had sung, 

With loud acclaim, while the new marvel rung. 

The doubt gave pause to Joy, and Triumph's tone 

To silence sunk, or swelled with hope alone. 

Oh, ne'er before, were royal words so dear, 

So slow to come to fair Columbia's ear ; 

So coveted, by all her brave and free, 

As those she could not catch from out the sea ! 
4* 



B2 EL ECTB N • 

Not letters patent from Victoria's hand. 
With queenly grant of all her Western land, 
Would half the rapture, new and deep, have stirred, 
In her young heart, as one electric word, 
Breathed by the royal lips, through that weird 
chord ! 

E'en while I sing — the town is all astir, 
With the wild echoes of that word from her ! 
A hundred bells are swinging, to and fro, 
Pulsing the air with Music's billowy flow ; 
Incessant vollies from the cannon's throat, 
Blare through the streets, with hoarse and deafen- 
ing note. 
.V thousand banners stream upon the wind, 
And jubilant passions seize the public mind ; 
The presses strain, the "extra" need to appease, 
And with the royal word, all ears to please. 
Xot what the message is, but how it came, 

all our hearts — and fireworks, too — aflame. 
Flashed o'er the wires, below the tossing wav< 
Trailing the floors of Ocean's sunless caves, 



ELECTRON. 83 

Electron bore it, in his bosom bright, 
From shore to shore, swift as the arrowy light ; 
And even now, on that mysterious track, 
Columbia's chief, has sped our greeting back ! 

O'er Albion's isle, a kindred fervour burns, 
As, from the West, the magic speech returns ; 
The English heart is beating close to ours, 
In bonds that shall defy all hostile powers ; 
All menaces of strife from Discord's tongue, 
Of Time's slow lapse, before, and distance sprung. 
The marriage tie, betwixt those hearts, is sealed, 
Since this new " Peace on Earth," has God re- 
vealed. 
Across the Eastern world, the tidings fly, 
And Cherbourg's splendours pale, while they flash 

by; 

Each tyrant prince sits trembling on his throne, 
To hear the new^ Evangel's startling tone ; 
And every fettered mind, that Freedom loves, 
With Hope's long yearned-for resurrection moi es ! 



84 ELECTRON. 

Already dawns the Earth's true " Age of Gold," 
And each swift year new lustres shall unfold ; 
The Angels sing, anew, " Good will to men !" 
'Round the great globe, the lightnings flash the 

strain, 
And all the grateful lands shout forth, " Amen." 



tijk E Nit. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

II! Ill II 




012 227 562 




